Universities and Regional Economic
Development
In a knowledge- based economy, universities are vital institutions. This volume explores the roles that universities can play in peripheral regions, contributing to processes of regional economic development and innovative growth.
Including a series of case studies drawn from Portugal, Norway, Finland, the Czech Republic, Estonia and the Dutch- German border region, this will be the first book to offer a comprehensive comparative overview of universities in European economically peripheral regions. These studies seek to explore the tensions that arise in peripheral regions where there may not be obvious matches between university activities and regional strengths.
Aimed at academics, policy- makers and practitioners working on regional innovation strategies, this volume brings a much- needed sense of realism and ambition for all those concerned with building successful regional societies at the periphery of the knowledge economy.
Paul Benneworth is a senior researcher at the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies, University of Twente, the Netherlands, and Agderforskning, Kristiansand, Norway.
Regions and Cities
Series Editor in Chief
Joan Fitzgerald, Northeastern University, USA Editors
Ron Martin, University of Cambridge, UK
Maryann Feldman, University of North Carolina, USA Gernot Grabher, HafenCity University Hamburg, Germany Kieran P. Donaghy, Cornell University, USA
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128. Universities and Regional Economic Development Engaging with the Periphery
Edited by Paul Benneworth
127. Territorial Designs and International Politics Inside-out and Outside-in
Edited by Boaz Atzili and Burak Kadercan
126. Smart Transitions in City Regionalism
Territory, Politics and the Quest for Competitiveness and Sustainability
Tassilo Herrschel and Yonn Dierwechter
125. Geopolitics of the Knowledge-Based Economy
Sami Moisio
Universities and Regional
Economic Development
Engaging with the Periphery
Edited by Paul Benneworth
First published 2019 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2019 selection and editorial matter, Paul Benneworth; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Paul Benneworth to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the author for his individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book ISBN: 978- 1- 138- 05127- 0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 315- 16835- 7 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo
by Out of House Publishing
Dedicated to Martha Barbara Benneworth
Contents
List of figures
ix
List of tables
x
Notes on contributors
xi
Preface
xiii
1 Universities and regional development in peripheral regions
1
PAUL BENNEWORTH AND LISA NIETH
2 Universities and neo- endogenous peripheral
development: towards a systematic classification 13
LISA NIETH AND PAUL BENNEWORTH
3 Towards a strategic alignment: regional challenges and
university tensions in peripheral geographies 26
RÓMULO PINHEIRO
4 University roles in a peripheral Southern European region: between traditional and ‘engaged’ roles through the
provision of knowledge intensive business services 41
HUGO PINTO, ELVIRA UYARRA AND MANUEL FERNÁNDEZ- ESQUINAS
5 ‘Strange bird’: a peripheral university college in a complex,
peripheral region 58
JAMES KARLSEN
6 The case of the Telemark region and the university college
of Telemark 76
NINA KYLLINGSTAD
7 Vysočina region: from a remote rural region straight into the
virtual world 92
LIBOR PRUDKÝ AND MICHAELA ŠMÍDOVÁ
8 Usti region: learning hard about industry modernisation 110
INNA ČÁBELKOVÁ AND JAN KOHOUTEK
9 Higher education institutions at the periphery of the periphery: creating sustainable economic development
in Estonia 127
ANNE KEERBERG
10 Universities and regional economic development in
cross- border regions 145
JOS VAN DEN BROEK, FRANZISKA ECKARDT AND PAUL BENNEWORTH
11 Constructing regional resilience in a knowledge economy
crisis: the case of the Nokia- led ICT industry in Tampere 163
HELI KURIKKA, JARI KOLEHMAINEN AND MARKKU SOTARAUTA
12 Conceptualising the university- region economic development
interface in peripheral regions 180
PAUL BENNEWORTH AND LISA NIETH
13 Future perspectives on universities and peripheral
regional development 194
LISA NIETH AND PAUL BENNEWORTH
Figures
2.1 The role of RICs in developing new trajectories 19
4.1 Map of the Algarve 48
5.1 Finnmark’s location within Northern Norway 62
7.1 General design of our research 94
7.2 The location of Vysočina in the Czech Republic 95 8.1 The location of Usti in the Czech Republic 114 9.1 Regional HEI units outside university cities (Tartu and Tallinn) 132
10.1 The EUREGIO 151
11.1 ICT employment changes in Tampere region 169 11.2 Turnover development of the ICT sector in Tampere region 171 13.1 Key take- away messages for national policy- makers 197 13.2 Key take- away messages for regional policy- makers 199 13.3 Key take- away messages for university senior managers 201 13.4 Key take- away messages for university engagement support
activities 203
13.5 HEIs are integrated knowledge communities involving
regional partners 206
13.6 Key take- away messages for engaged academics 207
Tables
2.1 Varieties of path creation 15
2.2 Possible challenges for peripheral regions identified by
diverse scholars 18
2.3 Possible responses of universities to lock- in scenarios 21 4.1 Key variables of Algarve, Portugal and Europe 49 5.1 Population development in sub- regions in Finnmark and
Norway from 1950 to 2016 64
5.2 Summary of main regional development challenges of the
sub- regions of Finnmark 66
5.3 Operationalising the HEI – regional tensions 67 6.1 Distribution of employees by sector in Telemark, Q4 2015 82 6.2 The campus locations comprising TUC, c. 2013 83
6.3 Research groups at TUC 84
7.1 Education of population of Vysočina region compared to
Czech Republic 97
7.2 Development of selected pollution and environmental
expenditure in Vysočina 99
7.3 Focus of VŠPJ’s study programmes and relation to
developmental needs of Vysočina region 101 7.4 Applicants, students and graduates of VŠPJ 102
7.5 Study fields and numbers of students 102
9.1 Institutions providing higher education curricula, 1995– 2016 131 9.2 Number of students at institutions providing higher education
curricula, 1995– 2014 131
9.3 Main characteristics of Estonian public universities’ regional
colleges, 2015– 2016 134
10.1 Possible university contributions to addressing institutional
gaps in CBRISs 148
Contributors
Paul Benneworth is a senior researcher at the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies at the University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands and at Agderforskning, Kristiansand, Norway.
Jos van den Broek is a senior researcher at the Rathenau Instituut, The Hague, The Netherlands.
Inna Čábelková is an assistant professor and the head of the Qualified Skills Department at the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague, the Czech Republic.
Franziska Eckardt is a PhD student at the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies at the University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands. Manuel Fernández- Esquinas is a research scientist at the Spanish National
Research Council (CSIC).
James Karlsen is an associate professor at the University of Agder, Norway, a senior researcher at Agderforskning, Kristiansand, Norway, and a senior associate researcher at Orkestra, Basque Institute of Competitiveness, Spain. Anne Keerberg is a PhD student at Tallinn University of Technology (TTÜ),
Finland, researching higher education institutions and regional development. Jan Kohoutek is a senior researcher at the Centre for Higher Education
Studies in Prague and an assistant professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague, the Czech Republic.
Jari Kolehmainen is Research Director at the University of Tampere, Faculty of Management, Urban and Regional Studies Group (Sente), Finland. Heli Kurikka is a researcher at the University of Tampere, Faculty of
Management, Urban and Regional Studies Research Group (Sente), Finland. Nina Kyllingstad is a PhD candidate at the Department of Working Life
and Innovation at the University of Agder, Norway and a researcher at Agderforskning, Kristiansand, Norway.
Lisa Nieth is a PhD student at the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies at the University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands.
Rómulo Pinheiro is a senior researcher (part- time) at Agderforskning, Kristiansand, Norway and Professor of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Agder, Norway.
Hugo Pinto is a researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra (Portugal) and Professor in the Faculty of Economics, University of Algarve.
Libor Prudký is an associate professor at the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague, the Czech Republic.
Michaela Šmídová is a researcher at the Centre for Higher Education Studies, Prague, the Czech Republic.
Markku Sotarauta is Professor of Regional Development Studies in the Faculty of Management at the University of Tampere, Finland.
Elvira Uyarra is Senior Lecturer in Innovation Management and Policy at Alliance Manchester Business School (University of Manchester).
Preface
The cliché is that science is a team game, with the result being more important than the individual who scores the goal. However, all of us in science know that we are all under immense pressure to perform as individuals. We are measured, monitored and managed as individuals, whilst the business of creating interesting and useful new knowledge is a collective affair. It has therefore been a great priv-ilege to work as part of a dynamic, enthusiastic and dedicated group of scholars who are keen to explore the roles of universities in peripheral regions. Although ultimately it is my name that stands on the cover as editor, in this preface I wish to draw attention to and recognise the contribution of participants in our wider scholarly community that have made this volume possible.
This book reports results coming out of the PERIF- EU project, a collab-oration between Agderforskning in Norway and a number of higher educa-tion research centres in the Czech republic. Many thanks are due to Rómulo Pinheiro, senior researcher at Agderforskning, for acquiring and overseeing the project and supporting my participation in the project through AF. The project was a fascinating opportunity to concentrate on truly peripheral regions, and the core set of case studies was sufficiently exciting to help enrol a list of other researchers with their own cases to contribute to this volume. The research leading to these results has received funding from the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2009– 2014 and the Czech Republic’s Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports under Project Contract no. MSMT- 5397/ 2015. I am a very demanding editor to work with, and I’d like to thank all the authors in this volume for their willingness to submit to my dictates as well as their patience as I suffered with RSI over the summer of 2017.
A word of thanks is certainly due to the publishers, Routledge, and in par-ticular their dedicated staff on the Regions and Cities series who worked with me on this volume, namely Lisa Lavelle, Emily Kindleysides, Elanor Best and Natalie Tomlinson. This is my fourth volume in this series, something that reflects the great enthusiasm and support they provide their editors with, at a time when academic publishers are increasingly driven by profits rather than the nurturing of new ideas. It has been a great pleasure to work with them on this volume, and I hope to continue this relationship into the future.
The last year has also seen some rather unpleasant shocks. One year ago we received the unexpected news of the passing of Professor Susan Christopherson, editor of this series. She has been a great inspiration to all of us in the field of economic geography, and made a number of leading contributions to debates around innovation, universities and uneven development. As we were finalising the volume, we were also told of the untimely death of our colleague on the PERIF project Olga Šmídová. Although she was not a contributor directly to this volume, she was an enthusiastic participant in the project meetings and the email discussions in which the ideas presented in this volume emerged. Our thoughts have been with those nearest and dearest to Olga and Susan, and they are being sorely missed by us both professionally but also personally.
Finally, an acknowledgement is also due to Martha Barbara. When I sub-mitted the proposal on 17 October 2016 to the publisher from the Coffee Bar in C pier of Schiphol en route to Lisbon for a meeting of the Forskningsrådet- funded Digitalize or Die project, we hoped that we’d not be seeing you for another six weeks. But you popped out at the end of the week, and thankfully you have grown as rapidly as the manuscript. Your growth has been an inspir-ation to me as I have sought to finalise this volume and I am delighted to have both a healthy happy daughter and my long- dreamed- of volume on universities and regional development in the periphery. The making of this volume was inextricably bound up with you, and for that reason, I dedicate this volume to you, Martha Barbara Benneworth.
